American Century Companies Inc. Purchases 721,270 Shares of H&E Equipment Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:HEES)

American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in H&E Equipment Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:HEES) by 104.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,410,554 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 721,270 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc. owned about 3.86% of H&E Equipment Services worth $62,304,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. CWM LLC boosted its position in shares of H&E Equipment Services by 42.5% in the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 932 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $41,000 after acquiring an additional 278 shares during the period. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in H&E Equipment Services in the 1st quarter valued at about $62,000. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of H&E Equipment Services during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $109,000. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of H&E Equipment Services during the first quarter worth approximately $170,000. Finally, Wellington Shields Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of H&E Equipment Services in the first quarter valued at approximately $205,000. 84.08% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on HEES. UBS Group lowered their price objective on H&E Equipment Services from $63.00 to $60.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. KeyCorp assumed coverage on H&E Equipment Services in a research note on Friday, August 9th. They issued a “sector weight” rating for the company. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of H&E Equipment Services from $65.00 to $62.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Raymond James assumed coverage on shares of H&E Equipment Services in a report on Friday, June 28th. They set a “market perform” rating for the company. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $61.67.

H&E Equipment Services Stock Performance

NASDAQ:HEES opened at $43.62 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.59 billion, a PE ratio of 9.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.16 and a beta of 1.85. H&E Equipment Services, Inc. has a twelve month low of $38.06 and a twelve month high of $66.18. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $47.28 and its 200 day simple moving average is $50.83.

H&E Equipment Services (NASDAQ:HEES) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The industrial products company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.03 by ($0.12). The company had revenue of $376.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $382.05 million. H&E Equipment Services had a net margin of 10.53% and a return on equity of 30.84%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.14 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that H&E Equipment Services, Inc. will post 3.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

H&E Equipment Services Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 13th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 28th were issued a dividend of $0.275 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 28th. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.52%. H&E Equipment Services’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.55%.

About H&E Equipment Services

H&E Equipment Services, Inc operates as an integrated equipment services company in the United States. The company operates in five segments: Equipment Rentals, Sales of Rental Equipment, Sales of New Equipment, Parts Sales, and Repair and Maintenance Services. The Equipment Rentals segment provides construction and industrial equipment for rent on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.